the complaints department

That's me.  Yes, I apologize to my loyal (and not-so-loyal) fans who have complained that I have not  posted since the day before I left to teach at the Virginia Quilt Consortium's bi-annual Celebration.  I have to admit, the countryside at the 4-H  place was lovely -- but the cell phone service and Internet were somewhat tempermental.  

Nonetheless, I had a wonderful time, with two fun groups of students who provided a lot of hilarity and some nice results.  It is not easy to teach Free-form in one day, and a couple of students who had never done this before were stymied early on by the thought of cuttiing without a ruler. BUT - they persevered as I coached them (as in, cutting without a ruler is the same as cutting with a ruler, except you don't use a ruler).   I worked with one of the students and here is what she had at the end of the day: it was a real accomplishment!

A couple of other pieces from that class...

These three tops were finished by the end of the day and I'm sure the others will be finished soon.  Amazing for a one-day workshop!

Backtracking a bit -- I flew into Greensboro and it was about a 2-½ hour drive to Wirtz, VA.  The lovely Lucille Amos, who lives in Greensboro, gave me a ride and it was a pleasant (and amazingly short) couple of hours.  Along the way, we spotted a farmstand selling just-picked strawberries and I had to stop.  Our strawberry season in NJ is in June and is so short-lived that it is impossible to find them.

So, I purchased a gallon of berries, about half of which I consumed while we were at the Quilt event.

Five days later, when I was leaving for home, they were a bit iffy, after having frozen in the back of the fridge and defrosted en route home.  Going through security with two quarts of strawberries was less of a challenge than I thought it would be. Happily, I was the only passenger at the Greensboro airport going through security and I simply announced to TSA person #1 that I had strawberries. She alerted TSA person #2 and it was not a problem.  When I got home on Monday night, I made 1-½ quarts of strawberry ice cream.  I don't even LIKE strawberry ice cream, but there you have it.

TODAY (Wednesday) It is 40-something degrees and has been raining for two days.  The heat on in May?  Yep.  And this morning, I made a pot of soup, some of which I am eating as we speak.

I did spend the day in my studio, experimenting (for a change) and deciding that the idea I had in mind was too much trouble for the result.  I abandoned it and started to work with the African and Indian fabrics I love so much.  Schlepped a ton of fabric home so I could work on it tonight and tomorrow because I am leaving again on Friday. Unpacked, did laundry, and will re-pack, all without even taking my suitcase upstairs.

It will be a week's vacation in the outer banks with my friends from college.  I can only hope that it will not be 40-something degrees.  SO - if you don't hear from me for another week, you will know why.

I expect we will be sitting around, walking if it is nice weather, eating, drinking, reading, and knitting.  I may bring some hand-work or even my sewing machine.  We will see.

See you anon.